County Executive Chris Abele's recent decision to dump popular Parks Director Sue Black has some in ex-Gov. Jim Doyle's administration feeling a sense of déjà vu.

That's because, they say, Doyle's team made an equally unpopular move nearly a decade ago by bumping Black to a less prestigious state parks job for what appears to be similar reasons. They contend Black was a high-profile staffer who alienated her staff and circumvented her bosses - sometimes without telling them - to get what she wanted.

"From what I understand of the situation, it's a repeat of patterns at the Department of Natural Resources," Scott Hassett, the DNR secretary under Doyle and one-time attorney general candidate, said last week.

But Black's lawyer, Franklyn Gimbel, downplayed the parallels.

He chalked up the 2003 move to simple politics.

"Jim Doyle is a black-and-white guy about loyalties," Gimbel said. "If he saw her as having a connection to Tommy Thompson, she had 'exit' written on her forehead."

Thompson, a four-term Republican governor, made Black the chief of the state parks system in 1997. She remains close to Thompson and even led the charge to rename a state park after him.

But when Doyle took office, Hassett moved quickly to remove Black from that post and make her a policy adviser to the administrator in the Division of Lands.

The newly elected Democratic governor and his team provided little public explanation for the change, which was criticized by Republican lawmakers.

Some things don't change.

This month, Abele - a Democrat - bounced Black from her county parks position with little explanation, except to say, "I can get better service." Abele staffers have since linked the move to what they say was a pattern of poor communication and a poorly handled park lease deal.

The move has been heavily criticized by County Board members and others.

Under Black's leadership, the county park system won several major national awards, and Abele gave her a $14,000-a-year pay raise less than a year ago. Black has called her dismissal an act of "betrayal."

Black, however, has a long record of butting heads with her bosses.

No Quarter reported last week that Abele's predecessor as county exec, Gov. Scott Walker, had his own run-in with Black over an unexpected budget deficit in 2006. Walker even ordered Black to draft a standing resignation letter that he could use when he wanted to remove her from office.

It never got to that point.

Walker has gone on talk radio in the past week to praise Black's work - despite the resignation letter and his decision not to give her a raise for seven years.

In an interview last week, Hassett declined to provide details on his decision to oust Black as state parks director nine years ago.

But two Doyle officials familiar with the situation - who asked not to be named because they don't want to be dragged into any possible litigation - offered some insight.

The first source said Black has a number of strong qualities, including her obvious PR skills and political savvy. She was very popular with many outside parks supporters.

But the source said she also had a number of critics in the DNR.

"There's universal love and affection for the parks - not for Sue," the source said. "A lot of people were very, very happy" when she was transferred.

First, the Doyle source said, her bosses and other division chiefs disliked it when Black would do end-runs by going to GOP lawmakers or Thompson to keep the parks from being hit, for instance, with department-wide budget cuts. Sometimes, the official said, people in the agency had no idea Black was doing this.

In addition, the Doyle source contended, morale within her division was very low.

"The governor had no problem with it," the Doyle source said of the transfer. "He just wanted it done sooner rather than later."

A second Doyle official agreed, saying the Democratic governor didn't want controversial personnel moves to linger.

"They don't get noticed as much at the beginning," the source said.

Clearly, Abele didn't get the message.

He kept her on as the county parks boss when he took office last year and then bumped her pay up to nearly $140,000. Her dismissal, Gimbel said, came without warning.

Now the prominent Milwaukee lawyer is weighing whether to sue, contending Black turned down a higher paying job running Chicago's park system nearly a year ago based on assurances given her by Abele. Black is also being represented by a Madison PR firm.

"I'm not rushing to start a lawsuit," Gimbel said Friday. "But I am very disappointed in the fact that I have attempted to straighten out some residual employment issues, and I'm having a hard time with the people calling the shots."